Jane White, 110 years of age, died this date, August 2nd, in 1851 of “old age” and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. According to census records, she was born into enslavement in the state of Delaware and was eventually manumitted. Coming to Philadelphia she went “in service” to a household in the Kingsessing section in the southwest part of the city. Servants who were “in-service” could lodge in the employer’s home or travel back to their own residence. The vast majority of single African American women lived-in while just the opposite was true with married women. (See W.E.B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro, p. 454.)
The 1847 African American Census registers a “Jane White” living at 7 Osborn’s Court located near the intersection of 8th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia. She had a total of $35 in personal property and lived in a 9’x9′ room for which she paid $28 a year. Her occupation was that of a wash woman. Ms. White would have been approximately 100 years of age.
A young 19th Century African American woman and her employers.
